Qixiang Automobile Company began to publicize that their Qixiang Automobile Company had worked hard to develop a private car that was affordable for middle-class families and was about to complete the final test and launch it on the market.
Not those two-wheeled cars, not trucks, but four-wheeled private cars.
This time, it instantly triggered public opinion?
A car that middle-class families can afford?
Many people just start guessing what the selling price is?
Four thousand Tang Yuan, don’t be ridiculous. Zhongyuan Automobile Company previously launched a luxury car with this price, but it was sold out because the rich looked down on it and the middle class couldn’t afford it.
What if it’s less than 4,000 Tang Yuan?
Is this possible? Everyone knows that the cost of cars is high now. If the selling price is less than 4,000 yuan, the car company will lose money.
Could it be said that Qixiang Automobile Company's technology has made a major breakthrough and successfully reduced costs?
Faced with the publicity of Qixiang Automobile Company, the enthusiasm of the public, mainly those of high-income groups, was suddenly detonated.
Especially for some high-income people whose annual personal income exceeds 500 yuan, they also follow the trend of the rich and get a car of their own.
They are all well-known people in the local area, and they urgently need a car that can reflect their status.
Not a two-wheeled car, but a four-wheeled one.
If Qixiang Automobile Company can really build one, many of them are already considering whether they should spend their savings over the years to buy one.
When these potential customers began to look forward to it, several other major domestic automobile companies were also paying close attention.
The people at Songjiang Heavy Machinery Company are the calmest. Their automotive business is mainly heavy machinery and equipment, and they do not get involved in the civilian consumer goods market. Today, the domestic heavy machinery equipment market is actually much larger than the civilian market. They have launched gasoline engine tractors and gasoline excavators.
Judging from the current production capacity, the three major products of machines and bulldozers are all scheduled to be in the queue for five years.
Countless large companies are waiting for their machinery and equipment for construction, especially the construction companies of several large-scale projects, which have placed huge orders.
Among them, there are more than ten large construction companies responsible for the Yellow River diversion project, and they are waving checks to beg them for supply.
They have been busy expanding their production capacity and have no thought or extra energy to get involved in the consumer goods market.
Moreover, they have also taken a share of the pie in the field of gearboxes. Just relying on gearboxes, they have made considerable profits in the field of civilian automobiles.
"Qixiang Automobile Company has already formally ordered 5,000 gearboxes from us, and has also signed an expected contract for 10,000 units. Judging from their attitude, I am afraid they have really controlled the cost, especially
It’s the cost of the engine!”
"This is a good thing for us. The more cars they sell, the more gearboxes we sell, but how do they reduce the cost of the engine? Can we introduce this technology and convert our large-scale
The production cost of the engine has also been reduced?"
"I have already inquired through the patent office. In the past three months, Qixiang Automobile Company has submitted more than 300 patents, all related to automobiles, and most of them are in the engine field!"
"Our technical staff analyzed their patent application documents. Although the application documents only have simple descriptions, if these patents are genuine, then they can really reduce costs greatly!"
"As for introducing technology, I'm afraid it's not easy!"
The four major automobile manufacturers hold on to the patents of engine technology, because this is where their lives depend.
The four major car companies say they are selling cars, but to put it bluntly, they are selling engines and giving away cars...
If Songjiang Heavy Machinery Company can still remain calm, then Hangzhou Power Machinery Company and Zhongyuan Automobile Company cannot remain calm.
Songjiang Heavy Machinery Company's main business is engineering equipment, which has nothing to do with the civilian consumer market. At the same time, it can also earn enough profits in the civilian automobile market through the core component of the transmission.
Therefore, they are happy to see Qixiang Automobile's attempts to reduce costs and promote low prices to expand the private market.
Anyway, no matter how much your car costs, Songjiang Heavy Machinery Company will make no less money in the field of transmissions, and the greater the sales volume, the more money they will make.
But the other two companies are different.
Especially for Hangzhou Power Machinery Company, their main business is West Lake brand luxury cars. Even if they are positioned as luxury cars, their customers are all the rich and powerful. On the surface, they seem to be different from Qixiang Automobile Company, which mainly targets the middle class.
Same.
But in fact, Hangzhou Power Machinery Company has been trying to further reduce the manufacturing cost of automobiles and expand the market. Their next main customers are the small and medium-sized wealthy people, local upper class people, those with annual income
High-income earners with more than one thousand Tang Yuan.
Their next strategic plan.
It is to rely on the luxury brand image established by West Lake Automobile to enter the mid-to-high-end market and prepare to launch mid-priced models expected to be priced between 3,000 to 5,000 Tangyuan.
This has already conflicted with the strategy of Qixiang Automobile Company, thus creating direct competition.
"How did they reduce their costs?" At the high-level meeting of Hangzhou Power Machinery Company, a group of executives looked not very good. They thought they had received accurate information, damn Qixiang Automobile Company, new cars
The selling price may be less than 3,000 Tang Yuan.
The selling price is not the focus, the focus is the cost control behind it.
These days, the cost of a four-horsepower gasoline engine that is within the standard size and weight is very high.
Hangzhou Power Machinery Company produces such an engine in its own factory, and the ex-factory price is nearly 2,000 Tang Yuan.
If the cost of the transmission, chassis, and many other parts are included, as well as the assembly cost, the production cost of a standard-configuration West Lake luxury car will exceed 4,000 Tang Yuan.
This is also the fundamental reason why their Xihu brand cars start at 8,000 Tangyuan.
Because the cost of their cars is already very high and their sales volume is very small, this also leads to higher costs and requires high selling prices to maintain profits and subsequent R&D and production funds.
But for Qixiang Automobile Company, the price of new cars will not exceed 3,000 Tang Yuan!
If it were replaced by Hangzhou Power Machinery Company, the cost wouldn't even be enough...
So at this time, everyone knew that Qixiang Automobile Company must have found a way to reduce costs.
And what is their method? This is actually not a big secret. Anyone who is interested will know it once they inquire.
The method used by Qixiang Automobile Company to reduce costs is true industrial mass production, using cheaper materials, and at the same time changing the previous hand-made model into an assembly line production model similar to large factories such as textile factories. There are many different
Only after combining these methods can the cost be controlled so low.
The question now is, can they do it?
Part of it is OK, but the other part is not!
For example, assembly line production has no patent and has been popularized in other industries for a long time. The automobile industry has been slow to popularize it because it is still in its infancy. Major manufacturers are actually still in the stage of manual assembly and production.
But if they are cruel, they can do it.
The part that doesn't work is naturally that Qixiang Automobile Company holds patented technologies, especially some of the core technologies of the engine. Even if they find out about these and know the technical details, they can't use them because it will infringe the patent.
Datang protects patents very strongly. Even if it is a wholly-owned state-owned enterprise like Zhongyuan Automobile Company, if it dares to infringe on the core patents of Qixiang Automobile Company, it will end up bankrupt in minutes!
In this regard, Xihu Automobile Company and Zhongyuan Automobile Company both chose to bypass technology patents.
Anyway, Qixiang Automobile Company has already pointed out the direction for them. Although the road has been blocked, they, the latecomers, at least know the direction, so they can completely open another road on their own.
Isn't it just to avoid other people's patents? This kind of thing is a required course for every enterprise in Datang!
If it really doesn't work, I'll throw money at it, but I still don't believe it can be done.
The only thing they are thankful for is that whether it is Hangzhou Power Machinery Company's West Lake luxury cars or Zhongyuan trucks, their existing business will not be encroached upon.
For Xihu brand cars, you don’t have to consider the cost. Rich people don’t care if it’s 10,000 yuan. What they care about is face.
And now Xihu brand cars are synonymous with face!
As for Zhongyuan Automobile, their civilian private car business is already very bleak now. Even if they are hit and wiped out, it won't matter.
Their current core business is trucks, and around new carriages such as trucks, they have established a complete patent blockade consisting of more than 500 patents. Before most of the core patents expire in fifteen years, other companies will
If you hope to bypass their patent pool and build a truck, even if you can barely build it, it will be a crippled product.
Currently, Datang's four companies engaged in the automotive industry all have their own core technologies and have built a close patent pool around their core technologies to ensure their core competitiveness.
This situation will not change for at least more than ten years.
As for more than ten years from now, when most of the core patents expire one after another, there will probably be another fierce fight.
Qixiang Motor Company ignored the concerns of several other car companies and soon announced the price of its first personal car to be launched in newspapers.
For only 2,600 Tang Yuan, you can drive the car home!